Is a Humanist an Atheist?

The answer is not necessarily.

A  humanist approaches the world in a secular way. Problem solving etc are done without the aid of supernaturalism (and that means without the aid of gods). There are lots of people who believe in supernatural things but chose to approach life secularly anyway. These people would be pragmatically a-theist, but not theistically a-theist.

However, Humanism, as a term, was coined to describe a specifically non-theistic, non-religious approach to living well and ethically. Our morality is unapologetically grounded in human compassion and we don't appeal to gods or supernaturalism at all in our moral reasoning.  Lots of people of faith agree with this approach to morality and problem solving and find that it blends well with their theism. For instance, people who have taken my Living Made SImpler course and read my books tell me that it provides additional grounding for the theistic morality they hold. But because the word Humanism is a specifically secular approach and because there is no other term to describe such an ethical approach, people of faith who share this value system describe themselves as being humanistic as opposed to humanist.  Meaning, they agree with humanism, but are still religious or theistic in some way. 

As a result there are groups for Humanistic Judaism, Humanistic Christianity, Humanistic Islam and humanistic whatever.  A Humanist is someone who is secular and therefore not religious.  Someone who is humanistic - approaches whatever their theistic beliefs are in a humanistic way.  

To learn more about Humanism consider getting my book: The Handy Humanism Handbook
or check out this online course: Living Made Simpler

Pragmatism?

I have been reading Greg Epstein’s new book. Apparently there are several different flavors of atheism. According to him I am a pragmatic atheist, which means that for me whether god(s) exists or not is irrelevant to living an ethical and successful life. I actually told an ethics class at a college that I thought the existence of god was irrelevant a few years back and almost every jaw in the room dropped. Apparently considering gods irrelevant is more shocking then not believing in gods at all. In my defense I was asked to present non-theistic ethics to them so the question of the existence of god was totally relevant to our discussion.

Regardless – I had no idea I was such a pragmatist. I’ve always considered myself an apathetic agnostic, atheist, ignostic apatheist. But what do I know. What is really important to me is not whether gods exist but rather once you have decided for yourself as an individual what you believe or don’t believe about gods, the next question is what is really important. Given what you believe, are you going to approach life with love or with fear and hate? And how does that affect your personal ethics? Your answer to this question, by the way, impacts me and everyone else on the planet. So yeah, color me pragmatic.

And that is why I am a Humanist. Humanism is a very pragmatic approach to living well and being a good person. That is why I titled my book – The Humanist Approach to Happiness: Practical Wisdom. It isn’t a philosophy book so much as a book about the pragmatic reasons for being an ethical, compassionate and responsible person. If you want to learn more you can buy an advanced copy here: http://www.cafepress.com/sumogirl.409202605 If this link is no longer good it means I found a publisher and you can find the new link on my website at http://www.sumogirl.com/

Joke about Atheists is a teachable moment

So, back in 2003 a joke started making the rounds about a Florida judge who gave Atheists their own holiday, April Fools Day. This joke is making the rounds again, except that it appears that many people don’t know it is a joke. Even though it is CLEARLY a joke. And any quick check of the news in Florida will verify that it is a joke and not real. Still, most people want to believe it is true for a variety of reasons. Atheists want to believe that they are persecuted and Christians want judges to stick it to those uppity atheists who are trying to eliminate Christianity from the public square. At least judging by the comments posted with the joke.

I was introduced to this joke on a Freethought discussion board and people were genuinely upset by it because they thought it was real. I read it and laughed. It is not as good as the atheist and the guillotine joke, but it is still funny. And the fact that freethinker’s fell for it as real was even funnier. And therein lies the teachable moment. Just because you claim to be a skeptic and a freethinker doesn’t mean you actually are. Whenever you hear something outrageous – even if you think it could be true – it is always a good idea to double check. Just to be sure before you go working your self up into a lather.